Yao Ming to attend FIBA World Basketball Summit

Wang Libin, president of Shaanxi Provincial Basketball Association, said the two-day event will bring together a wide range of high-ranking basketball figures from the world.

Besides Yao, the attendants of the Summit include FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, former NBA player and Russian Basketball Association president Andrei Kirilenko, former NBA and CBA player Stephon Marbury, and former Chinese star player Zhu Fangyu.

Also participating are some elites of other related fields, such as CEO of Infront Sports & Media marketing and vice-president of Wanda Philippe Blatter, Founder and CEO of the Wasserman Media Group Casey Wasserman.

Yao became CBA president in 2017, and his "Blue and Red" plan was regarded as a milestone in China's basketball reform.

During the past months, China's two teams with different coaches, played in different international competitions before they merged into one recently to gear up for the 2019 World Cup in China and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

China grabbed all four basketball gold medals in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, including the men's final on Sept. 1 when Team Blue defeated arch rival Iran 84-72.

Yao told TingVoa.com that in the "Blue and Red" plan, he had been very happy to find out five or six more potential players.

When talking about the prospect, Yao said, "I hope my greatest success is yet to come."

During the Basketball Summit 2018, the FIBA 3x3 U23 World Cup will be held simultaneously, with 20 men's and 20 women's teams from 33 nations and regions meeting in the hometown of the terracotta warriors and horses on Oct. 3-7.

Besides, there will be three individual contests: the Shoot-Out Contest (mixed), the Skills Contest (women) and the Dunk Contest (men).